Cyril Mann sought to extend the boundaries of figurative art by painting the dynamic effects of sunlight bouncing off surfaces and taking his interpretation of light beyond those of his predecessors, J M W Turner and the Impressionists.

During the early 1950s, he briefly switched to doing formalised still life paintings in bright electric light, exploring what he called their "solid shadows".

CYRIL MANN HONOURED WITH COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE

Cyril and Renske in Bevin Court

View from Bevin Court c. 1962

A commemorative plaque was unveiled on September 28, 2013, by Times art critic and Cyril Mann’s biographer, John Russell Taylor, at Bevin Court, the Islington council flat where he did many of his best works from 1956 to 1964.

The first on a social-housing block in England, the plaque is one of three awarded annually by public vote in Islington’s People’s Plaque scheme. Mann is only the second artist to receive the honour, following Walter Sickert, an earlier Islington painter.

Listed for its architectural interest, Bevin Court was designed by the Russian Modernist architect, Bertold Lubetkin.